These Charts Show the Truly Dismal State of Young People in Bailed-Out EU Countries

“Marginalized” and “excluded” “due to the Crisis”: EU poll

The human aspects of the European crisis, such as the effects of horrific youth unemployment in some countries, have largely receded from the headlines that ECB potentate Mario Draghi rules with his beautifully concocted negative-interest-rate absurdity and his efforts to manipulate the financial markets. Lesser ECB figures also try to get into the headlines edgewise, including German Bundesbank president Jens Weidmann, but no one listens to him anymore.

Yet, and despite Draghi’s bluster, the real problems in the EU, particularly in Greece, Portugal, Cyprus, and Spain, have not been solved – and I mean, not at all – as shown by the results of the big poll about young people in the EU. The survey, commissioned by the European Parliament and conducted by TNS opinion, led to an evocatively-titled report, “Most young Europeans feel marginalized by the crisis, says Eurobarometer poll.”

For some countries, the results are outright horrifying. Young people are the future. They’re expected to make these countries function down the road.

In total, 10,294 young people aged 16-30 in the 28 EU Member States were polled on a variety of questions, ranging from participation in European parliamentary elections to environmental behaviors, like “systematically sorting your waste.”

But at the core were several questions whose results caused the authors to title that section, “An Impression of Exclusion, due to the Crisis,” with echoes of 2012. So the poll asked:

Do you have the feeling that in (our country), young people have been marginalized by the economic crisis that is to say excluded from economic and social life?

For all 28 Member States combined, an 57% of young people said “yes,” they felt marginalized, 39% said “no,” 4% didn’t know.

These EU averages are weighted by size of the population in each Member State. The six most populous – Germany, Italy, the UK, France, Spain, and Poland – account for about 70% of the average. But beyond the already worrisome average are scores for individual countries that are a terribly sad depiction of what is happening in those countries.

At the far right of the chart below, the heroes (“yes” marginalized = red columns): Denmark (DK) where 31% of the young people feel marginalized “from economic and social life,” Malta (MT) where 28% feel that way, and Germany (DE) with 27%.

At the left of the chart: Greece (EL), where 93% of the young people feel marginalized “from economic and social life”; Portugal (PT) with 86%; Cyprus (CY) with 81%, and Spain (ES) with 79%. These are the countries whose bondholders have mostly been bailed out by the Troika and by Draghi’s promise to do “whatever it takes” to continue to bail them out:

Those who feel the most marginalized also feel the most frustrated with their educational and training system. While 59% of young people in the EU overall rate their national systems of training, school, and university education “well adapted to the current world of work,” there are two large divergences.

One, perhaps somewhat of a success bias. Among “Managers,” so people who’ve made it, 64% thought their country’s system was well adapted. But among the “Unemployed” and “House Persons” (EU-bureaucratese takes some getting used to), only 44% thought their country’s system was well adapted.

And two, vast differences between countries. Countries where the fewest people felt marginalized had the highest ratings on their school, training, and university systems — left side in the chart (“well adapted” = blue columns). But then it deteriorates.

In France, where the official unemployment rate has been over 10% for the last three-and-a-half years, only 42% of the young people felt their system was well adapted, followed by Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Cyprus, Bulgaria, and Greece with a dismal 25%. In these countries, young people feel that their system is failing them!

Then the poll asked about mobility: 32% of the young people said they want to study, undergo training, or work in another Member State, but only 12% ever actually did or are doing any of these, ranging from 48% for young people in Luxembourg to 5% for those in Italy.

And here’s the third question, concerning mobility:

Because of the crisis, you feel compelled to study, undergo training, or work in another EU country than (our country):

For the EU on average, 15% of the young people “feel compelled” to seek their fortunes in another EU country. But the average just covers up reality: In Germany (DE), only 1% “feel compelled” to do so, and in Sweden (SE) only 2%, versus those in countries whose bondholders have been bailed out: Portugal (41%), Greece (43%), and Cyprus (51%), where hope for young people seems to have evaporated:

The countries where young people feel most “compelled” to leave – “forced mobility,” the report calls it – are also the countries where young people feel the most marginalized (the first chart), and where youth unemployment is among the highest: Cyprus, Greece, and Portugal.

Despite Draghi’s bluster about saving the Eurozone economy, or whatever, with his absurd policies, the reality for some Member States’ young people – the economy’s future – has become dismal.

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41 comments for “These Charts Show the Truly Dismal State of Young People in Bailed-Out EU Countries”

Chicken

May 17, 2016 at 11:15 am

Sounds like a cheap labor pool special interest groups can draw from.

Get used to it, I guess….?

OutLookingIn

May 17, 2016 at 11:15 am

The reality is;
These are the future leaders, not only of governments, but of major companies and corporations. The future formulators of policy and of jurisprudence.

The present global financial/politico situation will have profound effect on how these future leaders conduct affairs when their turn comes. Expect a vastly different future from the current situation of barely controlled chaos.

The generational pendulum swings very slowly. At the moment it is pausing at the end of its arc, before making a clean sweep across time to another paradigm. That’s if the “old guard” who must release control, does so without completely destroying whats left of the world.

Chicken

May 17, 2016 at 12:19 pm

Interesting assumption, the “old guard” releasing control. Perhaps the players change as time progresses but the game isn’t likely to experience any favorable rules modifications, on the contrary. IMO

OutLookingIn

May 17, 2016 at 12:59 pm

The “players” will change, as this is a constant in a world of continual change. Along with new players comes game modification, or in some cases a completely new game. Granted, some will be favorable. Some not. Present events will have a bearing upon future directions, of not only nations but of the world in general.

Chicken

May 17, 2016 at 1:55 pm

It’s reassuring to observe you’re willing to embrace the new world order that “leadership” has chosen for you, please review the past 2 decades of events, most recently we concocted the deranged hunt for WMD’s that eventually lead to lifting Iranian sanctions PRIOR TO the collapse of energy prices and the IPO of Saudi Aramco, for instance.

It was high-time someone stirred up a few hornets nests standing in the way of the greatest transfer of wealth in the history of man.

OutLookingIn

May 17, 2016 at 6:30 pm

“willing to embrace the new world order”

I did not say, nor did I infer anything of a sort!
Besides this NWO hogwash is pushed by the old world order, in order to placate and reassure the propaganda “gobbler’s” whom make up the vast majority of society.

frederick

May 17, 2016 at 12:15 pm

Funny thing is İ have a friend from Munich graduate of Syracuse U and making films in Warsaw poland Everyone has different priorities İ suppose

We have discovered one of the biggest obstructions to successful implementation of programs of economic revitalization and regeneration in depressed areas are two synergistic psychological conditions called “Learned Helplessness” and “Masked Depression.” There is also a phenomenon called the “Crab Basket Effect,” where individuals who are making some socioeconomic status progress are “pulled down” by the ones who are not.

By allowing these conditions to continue, the “leadership” is creating serious long-term mental health problems, which will not only require enormous amounts of effort over several years to correct, but providing the recruits for extremist political movements, who are all the more dangerous because they have nothing to lose.

Petunia

May 17, 2016 at 1:31 pm

Hillary is never going to capture the Bernie supporters. They want something different. Talking about change is not enough any more.

frederick

May 17, 2016 at 2:55 pm

thank goodness İ would really hate to think that they would support a psychopathic criminal enterprise like the HillBilly Clintons

GSX FX

May 19, 2016 at 7:34 am

The Bush -2 pychos are far worse. Id rather Hillary than anyone from a Republican party. Trump the Chump aint the answer either.

The youth in most of the countries noted have very little money to simply up and leave. Good luck getting a job in London or Frankfurt without a degree or language skills. Thats called reality. Mobility is nice but why be mobile if you have no chance at all to even get a job.

In Germany you wont find many open arms near me. If you have no education or language skills you might sweep the floor.

RE: “The youth in most of the countries noted have very little money to simply up and leave. Good luck getting a job in London or Frankfurt without a degree or language skills.”

There is also the problem of the abandonment of their support network in their home country. In many countries the extended family provides extensive support, and an ex-pat can be perceived to be “abandoning” their responsibilities by emigrating.

Chicken

May 17, 2016 at 1:38 pm

The “leadership” is doing quite well, thank you for asking. We’re with the government and we’re here to help.

Petunia

May 17, 2016 at 1:38 pm

BTW, I really hate when anyone wraps basic human behavior in psycho babel. You call it the “Crab Basket Effect” in the real world it is just plain jealousy. Wrapping normal human behavior in psycho babel is the first step in prescribing the remedy, which is drugs and removal from society.

Chicken

May 17, 2016 at 1:57 pm

I agree Petunia, well said.

Julian the Apostate

May 17, 2016 at 1:28 pm

Fascinating George. All three of those concepts are used by women describing how women interact with one another. Much has been made of the feminization of society, seemingly to the point of neutering the young before tossing them out into the world. Don’t be too beautiful, don’t rely on your own judgement, don’t be too smart or effective. Let the group decide these things. And if you’re too brazen we’ll drag you back down-for your own good of course.

Description: “Excerpt from my dissertation examining the “feminization” of the American work-force and work-place and the relationship to vocational/technical education”

this one

May 17, 2016 at 3:58 pm

Misogynist propaganda. Mussolini and Hitler felt much the same way and insisted that the women stay home, even while their war industries were starved for labor.

Europe’s problems have everything to do with empire and nothing to do with a so-called feminization of the workplace. Europe is undergoing a deliberate slow subjugation by impoverishing and disenfranchising the next generation. The U.S. is contributing to the process by instigating war with Russia, which should take the minds of young Europeans off their problems by giving them vastly bigger problems.

Great dissertation! and check this video out for your ‘Back to the Future’ feminine experience. Not sure what it all means, but you figure it out. Men are going to continue to struggle against this tide, at least for a long while.http://youtu.be/iRAdRzdacJs

The Orca

May 17, 2016 at 2:50 pm

Can we get an expiration date on the term “economic crisis” please? It give the false sense that someday the crisis will end and all will be well. If you would place someone in the labor pool at age 18, then people 18 to 27 have never known an economy that is not in “crisis”.

EVENT HORIZON

May 17, 2016 at 3:29 pm

The EU should not be wasting money on European youths. There are millions of refugees who need food, housing, clothes, transportation, education, medical care, utilities, translators, cell phone access, access to schools, etc.

To deny opportunities to Syrians, North Africans, etc is nothing but racism and the people of Europe need to embrace diversity and multi-culturalism and provide for the needs of immigrants. Turkey is housing another 2 to 3 Million who should be welcomed into Europe and the youth should stop complaining and be proud they are not racist but should give up their “privilege” and help the needy.

this one

May 17, 2016 at 4:02 pm

Destabilizing Europe by destabilizing western Asia is also a goal of empire. Have patience. You’ll have your turn.

In my darker moments of paranoia I have had this sneaking feeling that the upper classes really want to kill off the great majority of us so they can enjoy an uncrowded world all their own. Anybody ever encounter rumors about this?

Ye Business that Walketh in Darkness

d

May 21, 2016 at 2:20 pm

No.

But realistically, there are already to many humans on the Planet.

Overstocking a farm with cattle, will have the same result as what humanity is doing to the planet now. Humans are mammals, and the planet is simply a big farm.

Further, think about robot factory’s, and capitalism based on sustainable practices, instead of the current unsustainable, short life span consumerism products, and an ever expanding consumer base, as it currently is..

What to do with all those, unskilled, poorly educated, unneeded, poor people???

china proved population management can work. china showed the flaw when you manage Asian population’s.

Managed population shrinkage, with sustainable capitalism, can work.

The current Globalised Vampire Corporate Oligarchy, allied with china, dosent want it to. As sustainability is not part of their current business model.

JerryBear

May 21, 2016 at 3:50 am

Yeesh? Is this a joke or something? A society’s primary duty is taking care of its own. It can be nice to help out strangers but your priorities have to be your own people. In the case of all those refugees from the Middle East, it is just too dangerous as recent events have shown. The best thing to do for them is send them back home and try to help them there.
As for you, I really don’t think you should go around proclaiming that your country’s youth should be abandoned so that resources can be diverted to an alien population regarded as potential terrorists. I foresee that you may someday be dragged out in the street and shot in the head as a traitor to your nation before a mob howling for your blood……

The way I read it was a joke. EH should have added “Sacr Alert!” Much of what EH says is dark and bitter sarcasm, the way I read it, but it’s not always clear.

d

May 21, 2016 at 2:22 pm

If that is what he is practicing, he should tag it, as currently he hasn’t mastered the art of it.

Ptb

May 17, 2016 at 6:06 pm

The worst three countries are head and shoulders above the rest. At least twice as many as others. These are also countries that have not had much going on for a long time. Leadership In the future…?, Compared to their past, it shouldn’t be difficult.

F451

May 17, 2016 at 10:19 pm

“Young people are the future. They’re expected to make these countries function down the road.”

Substitute’ Robots’ for ‘Young people’ and you’ll have a better understanding of what the European leaders expect from their populations.

Just look around you at all the people working sub-par jobs in retail.

Robots will take all those jobs in 20 years. What happens next? No need for people means less need for stores, empty streets and it will seem strange not to order something online.

As purchasing power is sucked away, fewer and fewer physical stores will exist. Only warehouse- Amazon type businesses will survive.

This is a power game Wolf. In the future money will be meaninglesss.
Those who can use robots to command resources will survive.

Robots will fight robots until they figure out who the common enemy is!!

RE: Huge numbers of young people in these countries have in fact left to find work. Also in Eastern Europe.

Indeed they are! And the countries/regions to which these young adults are migrating are complaining loudly about it, as this is not correcting the un(der)employment problem, just moving it around.

Even with a rise in economic activity, many of the entry level jobs these young adults have traditionally filled have disappeared due to automation/computerization. The is a serious and rapidly increasing problem in the “developed” world, which will shortly be addressed one way or another, which hopefully does not involve WW3.

Continued reliance on quack economic nostrums such as N/ZIRP, and archaic economic placebos is a sure recipe for disaster. For our politicians, regulators and economists it’s “get hot or go home” time.